Eldritch and Cantankerous

I’m listening to The Lost Symbol on audio book at the moment, and so far the highlight has been Robert Langdon being tasered. Nonetheless, we have a Papers-worthy mention therein:

Clutching the bird in one hand, [Andros, the villain] stood at the makeshift altar in his kitchen and raised a sharp knife, speaking aloud the incantation he had memorized.

“Camiach, Eomiahe, Emial, Macbal, Emoii, Zazean… by the most holy names of the angels in the Book of Assamaian, I conjure thee that thou assist me in this operation by the power of the One True God.”

Andros now lowered the knife and carefully pierced the large vein on the right wing of the panicked bird…

“Almighty Adonai, Arathron, Ashai, Elohim, Elohi, Elion, Asher Eheieh, Shaddai… be my aid, so that this blood may have power and efficacy in all wherein I shall wish, and all I shall demand…”

The ritual in question comes from the Key of Solomon – a slight rewording of Mathers’ translation, as it turns out, as apparently Brown’s multimillionaire villain has to rely on cheap paperback grimoires. You can find the ceremony at Joe Peterson’s site – Mathers’ version is given in the footnote.

This represents the only time, to my knowledge, that an authentic grimoire incantation has appeared in a bestselling mainstream book. I’m not sure what impact, if any, it will have on actual practitioners of ceremonial magic, most of whom have quietly done their work without blood sacrifices, largely ignored by scholars and the public alike.

Also, the world’s small animals called to tell me they like their blood right where it is and don’t want to share it with any of my readers.